US indictment in Pannun plot unsealed

Who: US prosecutors in Manhattan and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national charged with the plot; an unnamed "Indian government employee" the indictment said directed it; and the target, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a New York lawyer and spokesman for Sikhs for Justice who campaigns for Khalistan and holds US and Canadian citizenship.

What: On 29 November 2023 US prosecutors unsealed a superseding indictment in a New York federal court. As ThePrint summarised it, the indictment said the Indian employee, who called himself a "senior field officer", recruited Gupta and directed the plot from India. Gupta allegedly approached a man he took for a criminal associate, who was a DEA confidential source. That man introduced him to a "hitman", who was an undercover DEA officer. A fee of $100,000 was agreed, and $15,000 was handed over in Manhattan on 9 June 2023. The first indictment, filed on 13 June 2023, had not mentioned any Indian government employee. Czech authorities arrested Gupta in Prague on 30 June 2023 at the US request.

Where: New York, where the murder was to take place, and Prague, where Gupta was arrested. The US alleged the plot was directed from India.

Why it mattered: The BBC reported that Washington had accused Delhi of plotting to assassinate an American citizen. India said a high-level inquiry committee had been formed and that Pannun "is wanted for violation of the law", and denied any part in the plot. Pannun, whom India designated a "terrorist" in 2020, denies the charges against him.

The case came months after the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada on 18 June 2023, which Canada blamed on India and India denied. Sikh Siyasat News reports that the day after Nijjar was shot, Gupta told the undercover officer that Nijjar "was also the target" and that there were "so many targets".

Gupta was extradited to the US on 14 June 2024. On 17 October 2024 prosecutors named the Indian official as Vikash Yadav, and India said he was no longer a government employee. Gupta pleaded guilty on 13 February 2026.